Fortunately I had the chance to visit an assessment center during the weekend. However, I was not there to be assessed, instead I was one of the observers. The participants were applicants for an AIESEC traineeship. So, everybody was tested for intercultural competence.
What I didn’t know was that there are always different dimensions which are to be assessed. In our case it was tolerance, adjustability, communication skills, initiative, resilience and stamina. The day before we, as observers, were trained how to observe and how to judge. The assessment center was developed by students of business psychology. They also instructed us.
I sometimes had difficulties with the methods in the center and wondered how to assess somebody from his/her behavior taking into consideration only the given criteria. Unfortunately I haven’t had the chance to discuss this further. There was only little time and – as for my observation – the trainers were quiet sure of their AC and didn’t want to hear any sort of feedback. Somehow I cannot get rid of the thought that I had learnt more if we would have had more chances to discuss with them.
Unfortunately they also collected the material with the tasks after the AC was finished. So I cannot copy the games and tasks for my blog… ;-)